"I'm very cautious about how I'm getting back into it," Mr. Stuenzi, of Dalton, said as he strolled through a two-story house off Layton Road that his company will soon acquire. "For me this is an experiment."

Mr. Stuenzi's company, Hometown Real Estate Investments Inc., started buying residences in 2002, upgrading them and turning them around for a quick profit. When the area's real housing started slumping in 2009, his business held two properties that took two years to unload.

"When things were good, we were turning them around in three months," Mr. Stuenzi said. "In 2010, it got real bad. I carried a couple houses for a long time."

Recent signs of improvement in the local real estate market and the discovery of an appropriate property at a good price in a desirable neighborhood convinced Mr. Stuenzi and his associates to pursue a transaction.

"For a year, I've been looking for another flip," he said. "I'm trying to break back into it."

Mr. Stuenzi's timing could be favorable.

House-flipping activity in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro area more than doubled in the first half, compared to the same 2012 period, according to RealtyTrac, a Los Angeles-area company that compiles data on property transactions.

The region's property-flipping volume - in which a house is purchased and resold within six months - totaled 213 from January to June, up from 94 transfers in the prior-year span, RealtyTrac data show.

The average flipped price of a metro area residence this year was $93,296, compared to $133,071 statewide and a national mean of $200,942, according to RealtyTrac.

"The return of flipping is a signal of a return toward a normal housing market," said Austin Jaffe, Ph.D., chairman of the insurance and real estate department at Penn State University. "When housing prices stabilized in recent days, downsize risk is limited for investors who wish to flip."

The Greater Scranton Board of Realtors pointed to an improving housing market in its recent second-quarter report. The median price of homes sold in Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties from April to June averaged $126,400, up 5.3 percent from the prior year, according to the association. New listings of homes for sale advanced by 26 percent.

Flippers help stabilize the housing situation by rehabilitating rundown homes and returning them to the market, said Steve Farrell, broker/owner at Classic Properties in Clarks Summit.

"They go in, buy low, fix it up and make it in move-in condition," he said. "These investors play a critical and important role. They provide inventory that is turnkey for people that can't afford to fix up a house."

Mr. Stuenzi concentrates now on modest properties. An investor in his company provides financing for acquisitions and Mr. Stuenzi does the labor.

He has an agreement to buy the two-bedroom South Abington house in the mid-$60,000 range. He plans to invest about $30,000 over two months to install a new kitchen and first-floor bathroom, renovate ceilings and the second-floor restroom, landscape and sell the property for about $105,000. It would leave his company with a profit of about $10,000,

"It's not an ideal margin," he admitted. "It's still very difficult."

The average gross profit on first-half flips was 43 percent in the metro area and 31 percent statewide, according to RealtyTrac. The national average was 9 percent. The averages exclude investments made between the purchase and resale.

"The prospects of significant appreciation will fuel a new flipping boom, if one exists," Dr. Jaffe said.

Reins on mortgage financing remain tight and banks hoping for a housing rebound continue to withhold many foreclosed properties from the market, Mr. Stuenzi said.

"There's more competition for these properties because there are more investors looking for them," Mr. Farrell said. "These investors were kind of locked out previously."

Fewer people take part in the area's flipping trade after years of stagnant activity, Mr. Stuenzi said.

"A lot of the competition in the area, I don't see their signs anymore," he said. "The market pushed them out."

Mr. Stuenzi also took a pause.

While his company was inactive, he was a pipeline inspector for a natural gas company in the Northern Tier region and worked at a hotel conversion project in Pittsburgh.

"It has been three years since I got a regular paycheck out of the company," he said. "When things go slow, I did whatever it took."

His pending acquisition of a five-room home he hopes to sell for a modest price reflects his measured return to the trade.

"I have decided I'm going back to starter houses," Mr. Stuenzi said. "This is what people can afford and banks will loan for them."

Contact the writer: jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com

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